Call me old-fashioned but there's something about the proposition of communists manufacturing goods for sale to the free world that just goes against my grain. It's bad enough when they send us electronics with limited usefulness and lifespan, or tools made with sub-par castings and motor windings, but when they begin to send out consumer products with the potential to kill, that's where the line has to be drawn. Sorry if I offend anyone, but in my opinion it may be time for a Big China Smack Down. Actually, I'm not sorry if that offends you.

If an American company had included a poisonous substance in a food product ingredient that then killed and sickened potentially thousands of domestic pets, as the Pet Connection Blog reveals a Chinese company has done, there would have been such a tumultuous media outcry that almost certainly that American company would have been forced to close its doors for good. What has been done in our interest to deal with the Chinese company that threatened our very lives? My guess is just about nothing.

If an American company had included a poisonous substance in an oral hygiene product with the potential to destroy human organs and eventually kill, as the Bosque Boys Blog discusses that Chinese companies have done, once again the media outcry would resound across the globe with incredible force. That American company would be immediately locked down while inspectors and investigators scrutinized every square foot of its facilities and every digit of its business records. What is happening in regard to the Chinese toothpaste debacle? Oh yeah, they closed up a cottage workshop with about 30 employees and they're conducting a "probe." How nicely communist of them.

China should feel the brunt of their sloppiness. Their lack of real-world diligence should cost them billions of dollars. Instead, our mainstream media outlets play down these situations, dilute the focus, meander around the facts, and let the whole thing die out, while a few Chinese managers get tossed into the street and everything returns to business as usual. That's my prediction for how this shall all play out.

As I leave the subject here for you to form your own opinions on, I'll give you one more thing to think about: Do you really think our Chinese friends manufacture toothpaste, antifreeze, and solvents in the same facilities?

Hey China, give me a break.

Pet food and toothpaste: Hey China, give us a break! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

March 18 through 24, 2007, marks National Poison Prevention Week and it comes with some good news.

In the 1970s there were more than 200 child deaths a year attributed to the accidental ingestion of any manner of dangerous household chemicals, personal care products, over-the-counter medications, and cleaning agents. Due to the efforts of multiple agencies, the occurrence of these unfortunate accidents has been reduced to about 36 a year.

In 2005 about 91,000 young children visited hospital emergency rooms do to unintentional poisoning, and poison control call centers fielded more than 1 million calls. By maintaining constant availability and aggressive public awareness, organizations such as the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission seek to further reduce accidental poison fatalities.

To prevent these incidents, CPSC recommends the following safety steps:

Continue reading National Poison Prevention Week and other good news!

National Poison Prevention Week and other good news! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 17 Mar 2007 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Consumer Products Safety Commission has levied a fine which may bode well for The Home Depot, Inc.'s (NYSE:HD) sales of Charmglow grills this coming summer. It has been reported that Nexgrill Industries has agreed to settle a claim that they allegedly failed to inform officials of a potentially dangerous gas grill defect in a timely manner. The CPSC has provisionally accepted Nexgrills agreement to pay a $300,000 fine in the matter.

Nexgrill had received reports of gas grill fires, including reports of minor injuries, and allegedly failed to report the possible defect to the CPSC for 10 months. The news release states that Nexgrill had sufficient reason to believe they were dealing with a product defect. Finally, in June of 2006, Nexgrill did announce a recall of about 16,000 of the potentially offending grills. The possible defect exists in the placement of a fuel hose which may be situated too close to the heat source and thereby may potentially separate from the burner unit and create a fire hazard.

Nexgrill has made available a retrofit heat shield which eliminates the potential hazard. You may contact them regarding this corrective measure at this web address: http://nexgrill0025.serorder.com/. With this now behind them, both companies have the coming summer to look forward to.

A civil penalty and recall may spark some sales for Home Depot originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 14 Jan 2007 16:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

After listening to a talk by the brilliant and peppy Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr and now-Yahoo! employee, on Friday, I was intrigued to see an interview with Yahoo!'s VP for product strategy (the guy who makes the deals), Bradley Horowitz, about what the entrepreneurial tech firm is looking to buy next [WSJ subscription required].

He mentioned that his team looks at hundreds of pitches each week, while he ends up seeing only "dozens" of them and still so many of the products have the same pitch: "it's the next Flickr!" they all say. He's surprised at the number of "Computer Science 101 projects" that come across his desk -- i.e., companies that are both obvious and simplistic.

He's looking for people ("in it for the right reason" and "passionate about their product") more than he is product, but he's unclear as to what sort of product he might invest in. When you think about it, Yahoo! already had photo sharing before it bought Flickr. The next big thing for Yahoo!? Just might be more of the same, but with really cool folks attached to it. After all, haven't all the really great ideas already been invented?

Sarah Gilbert has a Wharton MBA and worked in investment banking for several years, then at a series of increasingly edgy startups before finding her calling, producing blogs for AOL. She doesn't own stock in Yahoo!.

Photo courtesy Horowitz' colleague Stewart Butterfield.

Yahoo! interview: what's the next Flickr? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As our site certainly reflects, everything new Google product launch seems to be associated with its ability to "kill" the competition. Putting a "G" in front of anything seems to strike fear in the hearts of investors in competitors, from eBay to Microsoft to AOL. But does Google actually succeed in slaying the knights of Yahoo! with its quiver of wildly-aimed product arrows? An analysis by BusinessWeek suggests, not so much.

Google Talk, for instance, was widely acclaimed as a fearsome challenger to MSN Messenger, AIM, and Yahoo! Messenger. But today, a little less than a year after its launch, the messaging program ranks #10 according to comScore Media Metrix. Social networking site Orkut, hugely popular at launch, is now at less than 1% share in that space (and much though I drooled for an invite, I visited the site once in the past year, although I've frequented many other social networking spots). Google Finance, Google Spreadsheets, and Google blog search have definitely not yet made their home in the "win" column.

The Google new product development process is described by Marissa Mayer as "try a bunch of ideas, refine them, and see what survives." And those that "survive" don't just live, but thrive; Google Maps is now #2 only to Mapquest, and Google News is (in my opinion) the best news search tool available, anywhere.

The big question BusinessWeek asks (and one that no one else is asking right now): does Google even know how to develop a product? The magazine says many of its new services lack "stickiness" and aren't really those that "people want to use." For a company whose product announcements are widely feared and its investors, them's fighting words. Will Google prove to be a conquistador or a schoolyard bully, great at making threats, but quivering inside for fear some competitor might actually stand its ground?

Google's new products: Bite, yes. Bark, not so much. originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.